Posts Tagged ‘2013’

We’ve got a unique twist for our final Best Of 2013 round-up (before the New Year comes a-crashin’ in: BAMM.tv’s Nick Hansen has stepped into the time machine and selected the highlights from the end of 2003, which was remarkably a whole decade ago. We’ll let Nick explain further …

Farewell to 2013 with nostalgia for what 2003 sounded like in a 40 minute package of dirty little memories. I know not all the tracks were actually from 2003, but hey ya, go on, have a break, put your feet up and sing along, you know the words.

Ready for some more musical highlights of 2013, as hand-picked by the BAMM.tv team? Good! Today we asked BAMM.tv’s Sarah Levitt to choose her favorite albums of the year gone by. The list is as follows …

Hope you had a great Christmas – and what with the New Year celebrations yet to come, little reminder is needed that we’re still in the tail-end of 2013, and still indulging in that wistful ‘looking back at the musical highlights of the year’ business. Today we asked BAMM.tv’s Fernando Estrada to pick his five favorite albums of 2013 …

Sometimes a song – no matter how brilliant it may be – is covered so many times by so many different artists that each successive version is simply greeted with a shrug. ‘Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas’ could easily be included in this category: a wonderful Christmas classic, true, but one which has been subject to more interpretations (of varying quality, one might add) as to render itself stale.

Well … not exactly. It’s Christmas Eve, and as the penultimate gift in our BAMM Advent Calendar Countdown, here’s a spellbinding and beautiful version by Tori Amos. Play this directly at the sky and it may well start to snow.

Think that vaguely punky-sounding Christmas songs – replete with snotty voices and angular guitar licks – are a relatively modern phenomenon? We’re afraid that The Kinks were way, way ahead of you there, as can be heard in today’s entry in the BAMM Advent Calendar Countdown. ‘Father Christmas,’ the band implores, ‘give us your money, don’t mess around with those silly toys.’ Well, that’s nothing if not pragmatic …

We’re getting ever closer to the big day: three days left until Xmas itself, and two days left until you’re frantically running around trying to buy last-minute presents. In order to chill you out (trust us, after braving the shopping mall at this time of year, you’re going to need chilling out) here’s a 1992 track from much-missed Sub Pop indie troubadours Velocity Girl: ‘Merry Christmas, I Love You.’ Now, doesn’t that feel better?

Early on in our BAMM Advent Calendar Countdown we mentioned the (fantastic) Waitresses tune ‘Christmas Wrapping.’ Well, take a couple of letters away and you’ve got today’s entry; the twenty-first in our musical sleigh ride towards Christmas. ‘Christmas Rappin’ is a fascinating piece: an embryonic slice of 1979 hip-hop/rap from Kurtis Blow which puts a uniquely funky slant on the holiday season. As Santa himself would describe it, this is some ‘real old-school shit’. Enjoy!

Here’s another installment of our ‘Best Of 2013′ season, in which the various musical luminaries of the BAMM.tv team pick their highlights of the year gone by. Today we ask BAMM’s Diana Gamboa for her favorite Cinematography In Music Videos. Here’s five of the best …

We’re five days away from Christmas, folks – that means that in a mere 120 hours Santa Claus will be coming to town, as often depicted in the lyrics of the classic song, erm, ‘Santa Claus Is Coming To Town.’ For Day Twenty of our BAMM Advent Calendar Countdown, we’re featuring a frankly awesome Bruce Springsteen cover of that very song – and if this doesn’t get you into a non-stop-grinning festive frenzy, then nothing will. Interesting fact: Santa is only actually ‘coming to town’ so he can grab a beer or two with Bruce; the whole present-giving thing is just a happy bonus.

We’ve been asking the BAMM.tv team what their musical highlights of 2013. Today it’s the turn of Fatima El Filali, whose wonderfully eclectic choices can be found below …

1. Mashrou’ Leila

The hipster band of Lebanon (as my friend calls them)!

Raasuk (below) literally means “they made you dance”. It is safe to say that this is a track from a very political album. I think the whole album plays around the idea of the rulers making the people dance, which makes it conceptual too. The video for the single is also playing with the same idea, the title literally means: for the nation.

Below is one of my faves from their previous album, and also a fave from their first album.